St. Joe Turns To Profit In Q1

(RTTNews) - St. Joe Co. (JOE) on Thursday reported a turnaround to profit in the first quarter, as results were boosted by income from the sale of its non-strategic timberlands and rural land. Shares of the real estate development company gained almost 7 percent in extended trades.

Park Brady, St. Joe's Chief Executive Officer, said: "It was a transformational quarter for St. Joe. The completion of the AgReserves Sale and the subsequent sale of our RiverTown community strengthened the Company's balance sheet. We are optimistic that the real estate market is continuing to recover which we expect will allow us to benefit from improving land pricing."

First-quarter net income attributable to the Florida-based company was $403.0 million or $4.37 per share, compared to net loss of $2.5 million or $0.03 per share in the year-ago period.

During the latest quarter, St. Joe completed the sale of about 380,000 acres of its non-strategic timberlands and rural land to AgReserves, Inc. for about $562 million. This included $200 million in the form of a timber note. The company recorded earnings of $511.1 million before income taxes for the quarter as a result of this sale.

Subsequent to March 31, 2014, St. Joe monetized the timber note from the AgReserves sale and received $165 million in cash, net of $15 million in costs. The company expects to receive the remaining $20 million in 15 years upon maturity of the timber note.

St. Joe recorded pretax income of $509.9 million for the latest quarter, compared to pretax loss of $2.5 million in the year-ago period.

Total revenues for the quarter surged to $594.1 million from $26.8 million in the same period last year.

Excluding the AgReserves sale, revenue for the quarter declined to $23.2 million from $26.8 million in the year-ago period, primarily due to a reduction in timber sales and a decline in the number of residential homesites sold in the quarter. These were partially offset by an increase in commercial real estate sales.

Looking ahead, St. Joe said it expects to record pretax income of about $26 million in the second quarter of 2014, on its previously announced sale of the RiverTown community.

JOE closed Thursday's regular trading session at $19.66, up $0.42 or 2.18 percent on a volume of 833,819 shares. In after-hours, the stock further gained $1.34 or 6.82 percent to $21.00.